uLearn shared notes #1 - Teaching as Inquiry for Appraisal using GAFE

Shared Current Practice

Teaching as inquiries are linked to appraisals

Video appraisals based on set goals at the start of the year film 3 times per term and reflect on this with team leaders each term - very beneficial to video

Time at the beginning of the year - working in pairs of ‘like experience’ released to go into each others class to get a sense of what is going on

Team appraisal - goals and inquiry question and collecting evidence in each team. End of year whole staff meeting for teams to present their inquiries.  Team inquiry is linked to maths PLD - aligining PLD with peer coaching and inquiry - makes PLD more meaningful and transparent

Teachers council to develop a base line to integrate inquiry and appraisal - 12 teachers and senior leaders - a lot of people have a standardised approach as opposed to a flexible approach i.e. different for a beginning teacher and experienced teacher. Developing a cohesive project which takes into account different teachers - one size does not fit all.

Recording teaching as inquiry

Recording teaching as inquiry in teacher ePortfolios - will be shared with whole staff in Term 4

• Appraisal packs have been given electronically - add evidence to support the development or achievement of goal and registered teacher criteria e.g childrens work, reflections
• Blogs
• Video
• shared teacher drive and published docs of various teacher inquiries
• Principal inquiries are also shared with staff

Teacher Observations -

Written teacher reflections against the Registered Teacher Criteria… Pretty full on and in depth but not a lot of ongoing reflection.

Trying to develop a model linking RTC, Teaching as Inquiry and Jan Robertson model of self reflection and peer coaching to deepen inquiries. Also the idea of descriptive observation rather than critical observation with the critique coming more from the teacher's own reflection on the description. - Could you use the GROW model for this?

what is GROW?  A leadership model that has the Teacher at the centre rather than the coach as the expert.  Goal - Reality - Options - What now or Where next.  Can be used in conjunction with SMART goal setting.

Magic number is 5 - focus your inquiry onto no more than 5 students!

             . Is it about the coach and teacher or shaped around evidence of specific student achievement and student voice?

Move inquiry question to refocus direction.

Halbert & Kaser, Spirals of Inquiry 2013

Using hard, cold data /evidence to improve achievement

Inquiry not a solitary pursuit

collective vision

Te Reo in the classroom

This year I have been working collaboratively with Shellee in Room 15 to run a Te Reo program that fits our needs and timetables without being too forced or false.  Three terms in, there is clear evidence that our model works for our learners (this year anyway).

In term 1 we met together to go through the Toku Reo online program - this runs on Māori TV and there are episodes available on the website. With 5 seasons available online and around 100 episodes per season there more episodes than we could possibly watch in a year. 

In term 2 we worked on cultural narratives - first we watched several sand art videos showing the creation story through Māori perspective.

Then in mixed groups of 3-4 students they planned their representation of the story of Papatūānuku and Ranginui. This was done in two ways - visual and narrative. The result was a series of triptychs and stories.

In Term 3 so far we have worked on our mihi - a number of students have been able to share their mihi on the school radio station over this last week - and clear evidence that regular contact with Te Reo Māori has been the speed and enthusiasm at learning their mihi. 

Over the latter part of this term we are going to be learning some new songs - we already have a number that we sing on a regular basis: NZ National Anthem; Poi-e; He Honore; and more recently Stan Walker's new release - Aotearoa. We are learning Raumati-e, Rona, Utaina, Ka Mate, and have requests to do Toia Mai and several others. 

We haven't planned term 4 yet - we'll see what the students want to learn.

What we'd change - not sure really - except that Toku Reo being so huge I think we'd plan specifics - phrases etc - so that we could use target episodes instead of just trying to work our way through the episodes. I'm also going to try and use the videos from Te Kupu o te wiki more in my classroom.

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic motivation

In my head I have a debate raging over extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation ... one part of me says that kids should be motivated for themselves - for the pride they get at completing tasks or for doing an assigned job well - but this doesn't work much (except for the occasional kid) - the other part of me says that I should use some kind of system to reward kids for doing what they should be doing!

I currently have a 3 strikes policy in my class - 1-verbal warning; 2-name on board; 3-time out to think and 'find manners' - this works quite well but I really can only monitor this properly when kids are on the mat with me. I have noticed that when kids get to #3 and are asked to leave the room to think about their behaviour and find their manners that they're very good at monitoring themselves with this - some kids walk out the door, pause, and them come back in - that's all they need; others sit down for 2-3 minutes and then come back in; and sometimes it takes 10-15 minutes for them - but they all (even J) come back in and sit quietly down and go back to doing what they should be doing.

We are also working on managing ourselves in different situations - on the mat, during our Wednesday wonderings (group work), during break times, during rotation times. I've been using Plickers (https://www.plickers.com/classes/22558) to have the kids self reflect on their behaviour - because the graphs are anonymous they are quite honest with themselves.

I'm also aware that I don't acknowledge good behaviour enough or consistently.  Some people reward with points for various activities but these are often seating group based which wouldn't work for my classroom. I also don't want to be awarding points for completing homework or doing pretty things - I want to be able to change my 'rewards' so that they meet the needs of my class.

I've noticed that my kids also respond better to online activities that give them rewards - Sumdog gives them points to dress out their character; IXL gives them rewards on a board as well as ribbons as they answer their maths questions; Khan does give rewards but it's not so obvious or immediate - there's nothing real about them but they kids love rewards. 

So ... this week I'm going to introduce Class Dojo - I'm not sure that I really want to be monitoring in a pedantic way but there are several things I like.

I can choose what I'm monitoring - our school values and key competencies for instance - and I can click a randomiser button and check up on that person to see what they're doing. I can also reward the whole class or individuals or several students. It also helps that there's an app for it!

It will be interesting to see whether this helps their motivation this week.

Kids can also log in (with a code) and change their avatars and monitor their own progress.

Wednesday Wonderings

Each Wednesday in our class we have Wednesday Wonderings. This is a hands off time for me as the teacher - the kids work in SOLEs to answer a particular question. So far we've answered these questions:

How do my eyes know to cry when I'm sad?

Is it disgusting to eat bugs?

Why do people slip on wet surfaces?

The kids form their own groups of 4 or 5 (depending on how many are present that day). They get 2 devices per group, paper to record their findings on, and 40 minutes to research and prepare to present.

It's a great opportunity to watch them co-operate and collaborate - and to see who is able to do so successfully as well.

This term our big goal is managing self. They will be given a change to self reflect on how well they managed them selves during this time as well.

Leadership

There's a kind of kudos thing that happens when you finally gain the title 'leader' or 'team leader' but I've discovered there's a double-edged sword-ness about it. 

As a leader my role is to work with a team of teachers in the area of 'Thinking'. According to the synopsis this means: 

Thinking

This area is an essential element of Powerful learning.  Jo Fothergill is developing teachers’ abilities to both develop their own and students specific thinking skills and to build students aptitude to use a variety of thinking approaches when completing tasks and solving problems.  The two major tools that RBS is hoping to embed are Art Costa’s Habits of Mind (aptitudes and attitudes) and Edwards de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats which have multiple levels of use and is far more rigorous and challenging than most students would have previously experienced. Jo is working with Team Wharemauku in Terms 2 & 3.

Perhaps some of the difficulty/double-edged sword-ness is because thinking isn't a tangible 'subject'. After all, how do you measure increase in thinking? While there are some specifics that can be measured as far as the teachers' questioning skills, it's not like PE or Science where you can check lesson plans and observe lessons in action. Thinking covers all aspects of school - both in and out of the classroom. (All aspects of life too, one would hope!)

There's also a requirement for me to be modelling 'Thinking' in my classroom. Which is fine by me, but which implies that I'm some kind of expert at it! (Those who know me well might laugh at that.)

I guess I'm enjoying the challenge of leading a team, of challenging and mentoring the teachers in that team. I have to be prepared and know exactly what I'm doing in each of our sessions (Friday mornings 8-8:45) before the session - it's not something I can just 'wing' or run in the spur of the moment. And I guess that I enjoy being really challenged - as Mike says I can do eLearning blindfolded - but this is something I have to work at, read about, upskill myself in, and generally work hard at.

Thinking of you